Air fan apparatus

ABSTRACT

Apparatus comprising a plurality of centrifugal fans arranged in transverse pairs, one pair above the other, to discharge their air output into a common plenum, thereby reducing both the cost, weight and the volume of space that would be occupied by fewer larger air fans of like capacity, and also obtaining a more efficient air distribution in the respective upper and lower portions of the plenum. Each of said fans has its scroll-type housing fixedly mounted on a support frame and its fan rotor, shafts, bearings, drive motor, and drive, mounted on vibrationdamping components mounted on said frame which, thereby isolating said fan housing from the effects of such vibration.

United States Patent [191 Reznick et al.

[ 1 Aug. 5, 1975 Los Angeles, Calif. 90004; Ernoe A.

Fekete, 9835 La Docena Ln, Pico-Rivera, Calif. 90660 [22] Filed: Nov. 23, 1973 [21] Appl. No; 418,749

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 408,164, Oct. 19,

1973, abandoned.

3.404.539 10/1968 Laing 0. 417/362 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 221,554 4/1960 Austria 417/363 Primary E.ranzinerWi11iam L. Freeh Assistant E.\'aminerRichard E. Gluck [57] ABSTRACT Apparatus comprising a plurality of centrifugal fans arranged in transverse pairs, one pair above the other, to discharge their air output into a common plenum, thereby reducing both the cost, weight and the volume of space that would be occupied by fewer larger air fans of like capacity, and also obtaining a more efficient air distribution in the respective upper and lower portions of the plenum. Each of said fans has its scrolltype housing fixedly mounted on a support frame and its fan rotor, shafts, bearings, drive motor, and drive, mounted on vibration-damping components mounted on said frame which, thereby isolating said fan housing from the effects of such vibration.

2 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures [52] U.S. Cl 417/362; 417/363 [51] Int. Cl. F04B 17/00; F04B 35/00 158] Field of Search 417/362, 363; 248/15, 20, 248/21 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2.191.418 2/1940 Allen 248/15 2,496,720 2/1950 Heiman.-. 417/362 X 3,169,737 2/1965 Wilson 417/362 X 1 1 ,1 l l 1 1r 1 1 AIR FAN APPARATUS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of pending application, Ser. No. 408,164, filed Oct. l9, I973 now abandoned and bearing title AIR FAN APPARATUS.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION FIELD OF THE INVENTION In air conditioning units such as roof-top and other installations of ventilating and related equipment.

The prior art in the field of roof-top and like ventilating apparatus, in the past, involved the installation of centrifugal fans in such apparatus that are the largest in size and output required, such fans comprising unitary components, all portions of which are subject to the vibration generated during operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The provision of at least one pair of air fans, the sum of the flow capacities of which is comparable to the capacity of a single, larger air fan, and placing two such fans in side-by-side relation so their air output will uniformly enter and pass through a plenum to serve apparatus such as a furnace or a cooling coil.

By providing two such pairs of air fans in spaced vertical relation the upper pair of fans will direct a uniform flow of air transversely across the upper portion of the plenum to a furnace, for instance, while the lower pair of fans will direct a uniform flow of air transversely across the lower portion of the plenum to a cooling coil, for instance.

The above arrangement of air fans is superior to two larger size air fans of equal flow capacity for the several reasons above set forth.

Further, since the larger the fan, the greater is the vi' bration of the rotor thereof, by reducing the size of the rotor of two smaller fans of equal air-moving capacity, the lesser is the vibration that is transmitted by such smaller rotors. The present apparatus not only reduces the size of the centrifugal fans used, as hereinabove indicated, the housings and the rotors thereof are also physically spaced and unconnected, the former being fixedly mounted on the support frame of the apparatus and the rotors mounted on vibration-damping means as above indicated.

It is an object of the present invention to not only provide improvement in efficiency of air flow of air fan apparatus, and provides apparatus that is lower in ini tial cost, less expensive to maintain in operation and less consuming of space, but, also, isolates the frame and fan housings of the apparatus from the vibration effect produced by the fan rotors.

This invention also has for its objects to provide such means that are positive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a working position and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture, relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novel combinations and arrangements of parts, which will more fully appear in the course of the following description, which is based on the accompanying drawing. However, said drawing merely shows, and the following specification merely describes, one embodiment of the present invention, which is given by way of illustration or examply only.

In the drawing, like reference characters desginate similar parts in the several views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is a side elevational view ofa portion of a ventilating or comparable support frame provided with air fan apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view as taken on the plane of line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a broken and enlarged side view of support means that mounts all elements of the driven and rotating portions of the air fans of said apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an additional cross-sectional view as taken on the plane of line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present air fan apparatus is shown as being mounted on a support frame 5. In most instances, said frame is of the rooftop type. Such support frames usually comprise a base portion 6, and a top portion 7, said portions 6 and 7 being fixedly connected by a plurality of vertical members 8 at the front and rear of the support frame. The parallelepided frame thus provided is shown, in this case, with a floor 9, and certain of the front and rear members 8 are connected by a lower mounting plate 10 and a similar upper plate II. A transverse channel 12 is affixed to the frame part 7, extending from the front to back of said frame.

The above-described support frame 5 is intended as exemplary of such frames for fixedly mounting lower and upper pairs of centrifugal air fans l3 and 14, respectively, in a cross-compound arrangement. In this case, only the scroll-type housings 15 of said fans 13 and 14 are affixed to the frame 5, the outlet portions 16 thereof being fixedly connected to the respective mounting plates 10 and 11. Each fan housing 15 has the usual air inlet 17 formed in one of both sides of the housings 15.

Each of the fans 13 and 14 is provided with a rotor 18 that is physically spaced from the housings 15 of the respective fans and may be of the usual design for airmoving cooperation with the scroll shape of the respective housings 15. The rotors 18 that are in crosscompound relation are connected by a shaft 19 one shaft for the rotor in the housing of the fans 13 and the other for the rotor in housings of the fans 14.

The mentioned shafts 19 are each provided with a pulley 20, a belt 2] connecting said pulleys so one shaft 7 l9 drives the other.

The above-described structure, both in the front and rear of the centrifugal fans 13 and 14, is provided with vibration-isolating or damping components 25 which extend between the frame portions 6 and 7, as shown in FIG. 1. Each said component 25 extends between a lower fitting 26 affixed to the frame floor 9, and the mentioned transverse channel 12 affixed to the frame member 7.

Each said component 25 comprises a vertical angle member 27 which, in vertically spaced relation, according to the spaced relation of the fans 13 and 14, provided with pillow blocks 28 in which said shafts 19 are journalled.

As best shown in FIG. 3, each component 25 has its angle member 27 provided with a foot 29 that is supported on compressible snubbers 30 extending upwardly from the fitting 26, thereby allowing said members to move vertically, i.e., allow vertical vibration thereof, according to the vibration of the rotor 18 of the two vertically spaced centrifugal fans 13 and 14 adjacent each respective component 25.

This snubber means is shown as including an expansion spring 31 which may be regulated by screw adjustment means 32 carried by the mentioned foot 29.

At the upper end of each said component 25, the angle members 27 are connected to the channel 12 at the top of frames by a snubber means 33 which comprises two pairs of compressible cups 34, one pair on each side of the angel member, coil springs 34a interposed between the cups, and screw means 35 engaged with each cup to regulate the resistance to lateral movement of the vibration-isolating components 25 as caused by vibratory movement of the fan rotors by varying the tension of said springs 34a.

It will be clear from the foregoing that the components 25, when caused to vibrate by vibratory movement of the fan rotors, is snubbed by regulatable means both vertically and laterally, thus materially lessening transmission of such vibratory movement not only to the housing of the fans but also the frame of the apparatus.

By substituting two pairs of smaller centrifugal fans for the ordinary larger and more massive centrifugal fans, the vibrator factor is reduced to a greater proportionate degree, as hereinbefore discussed. The structural factors required in the design of the vibrationisolating means that snub the vibration of four smaller fans than would be required for two larger fans of equal output. represents the costand weight-saving that was hereinbefore explained.

An electric or other type of motor 36 is provided to drive the pairs of fans 13 and 14 by means of a pulley and belt drive 37. FIG. 1 shows such a drive connecting the motor with the shaft 19 of the pair of fans 13, but said drive may be connected to the shaft 19 of the pair of fans 14, if desired.

The motor 36 is shown as mounted on a cross plate 38 that spans between and connects the angle members 27 of the vibration-damping component 25. Thus, any vibrations generated by the rotor 18 of said fans 13 and [4 are dampened by said components so that not only the fan rotors, their shafts, and the bearings of the latter, but also the drive motor 36 are isolated from the operative vibrations of the fan rotors.

While the foregoing has illustrated and described what are not contemplated to be the best modes of carrying out the invention, the constructions are, of course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described the invention. what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. Air fan apparatus comprising a rigid frame mounted on a support base, said frame being provided with a top portion;

fan means comprising two vertically spaced pairs of centrifugal air fans, the housing of said fans being each fixedly mounted on said frame, the fans of each pair being horizontally aligned, the rotors of each pair being disposed on a common axis, and a single drive shaft connecting the two rotors of each pair of fans,

a single drive belt connecting said two drive shafts,

a drive motor,

a drive belt connecting said motor with one of the mentioned drive shafts to thereby drive the rotors mounted on the latter drive shaft and to simultaneously drive the other drive shaft and the rotors thereon through the single drive belt, and

two vibration-damping components, one on each side of the fan means and extending between the support base and the top portion of the frame, said vibration-damping components mounting the two mentioned drive shafts and the drive motor, whereby the vibrations generated by the fan rotor and the drive motor are dampened during operation of both pairs of air fans.

2. The air fan apparatus according to claim 1 in which only the shaft common to one pair of air fans is directly driven by the drive motor and the drive shaft common to the other pair of air fans being driven only by the shaft of the motor-driven pair of air fans. 

1. Air fan apparatus comprising a rigid frame mounted on a support base, said frame being provided with a top portion; fan means comprising two vertically spaced pairs of centrifugal air fans, the housing of said fans being each fixedly mounted on said frame, the fans of each pair being horizontally aligned, the rotors of each pair being disposed on a common axis, and a single drive shaft connecting the two rotors of each pair of fans, a single drive belt connecting said two drive shafts, a drive motor, a drive belt connecting said motor with one of the mentioned drive shafts to thereby drive the rotors mounted on the latter drive shaft and to simultaneously drive the other drive shaft and the rotors thereon through the single drive belt, and two vibration-damping components, one on each side of the fan means and extending between the support base and the top portion of the frame, said vibration-damping components mounting the two mentioned drive shafts and the drive motor, whereby the vibrations generated by the fan rotor and the drive motor are dampened during operation of both pairs of air fans.
 2. The air fan apparatus according to claim 1 in which only the shaft common to one pair of air fans is directly driven by the drive motor and the drive shaft common to the other pair of air fans being driven only by the shaft of the motor-driven pair of air fans. 